December 2009
1 post
2009 Completion List
Here’s a list of games I finished in 2009:
Prince of Persia
The Simpsons Game
Tomb Raider Legend
Mario & Luigi 3: Bowser’s Inside Story
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
Rhythm Heaven
Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! 2 (finally beat on hardest difficulty)
Edge (iPhone)
Splosion Man
Mirror’s Edge
Ys Books 1 & 2
Bit Trip Beat
Peggle (XBLA)
Brutal Legend
Retro...
November 2009
6 posts
Pile of Shame
Scott and Adam inspired me. Here’s my pile of shame, the list of games that I currently have sitting in a state of unfinished…ness that is unsatisfactory to me:
XBox 360
Assassin’s Creed: I’m roughly halfway through. Got bored with it at the time, could probably stand to come back to it now that I’ve played other things
Beatles Rock Band: need to finish main story...
Dear 8-Year-Old Me
In the future the people who made your Walkman will make a game console with unparalleled computational power. Its first showcase game will end with two old men punching each other to death for ten minutes while Spanish guitar plays.
5 tags
Star Guard
Star Guard (free, Windows/Mac) is a fun distraction with an appealing aesthetic that gave me flashbacks of playing Apple IIe games at my friend’s house as a kid. Anna Anthropy wrote a thoughtful, well-illustrated breakdown of the game on a design level, but I found the fight against the boss frustrating because it broke the Bioshock-like mechanic of the game that kept the world persistent...
Dear Hollywood
cleversimon:
shuffstuff:
I don’t like to get hysterical over things, but Jake Gyllenhaal is in Prince of Persia.
Not only is he in it, he is The Prince. Of Persia.
I’m not going to discuss his merits as an actor—it’s entirely beside the point. He’s white.
I’m with you 100% on this, Shuff, but feel compelled to note that the original Prince of Persia was a blonde white guy.
Why do you...
October 2009
4 posts
4 tags
Brutal Legend's RTS gameplay →
I knew from Interviews that it had “RTS Elements,” but I’ve reached a part of the game where there’s a whole lot of RTS going on, and it’s not a genre for which I have much aptitude - particularly with a gamepad. At the same time, my healer units drive around on huge motorcycles emitting waves of healing bass. This is what we in the business call an impasse: a game...
1 tag
Edge →
(link opens in iTunes)
Edge, my favorite iPhone game and the closest thing to a traditional console/handheld gaming experience I’ve had on the iPhone, is back up on the App Store after dealing with some baseless copyright infringement claims from a maniac. Go buy it if you don’t own it already! It’s really good.
3 tags
PSP: A UI Nightmare
I was recently excited to see that NIS America was dropping the price on Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! What Have I Done To Deserve This? and Prinny: Can I Be The Hero? through Sony’s PSN store. I had been meaning to pick up both games, but just never bothered to dig out my PSP and boot it up to at least download the former, which was downloadable-only to begin with. Now that they were...
6 tags
Sale on NIS PSP Titles on PSN →
This week only, to promote the launch of the PSP Go. I’m definitely picking up Prinny and Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman!.
Here is the list of discounted titles. The price range is between $4.99 and $9.99!
Blade Dancer: Lineage of Light
Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness
Dragoneer’s Aria
Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! What Did I Do to Deserve This?
Mana Khemia: Student Alliance
...
September 2009
4 posts
IGN adds What They Play to network of videogame... →
John Davison ran a great site on What They Play for a little while there– the concept didn’t really apply to me (I’m not a parent) but I tuned in from time to time to see what they were doing because it was definitely an interesting perspective to game coverage. This is really sad news; I’m sure it makes sense financially but IGN is basically the worst thing. Oh well.
Things I Miss: "Save Game" →
nerdology:
In Arkham Asylum and Wolfenstein (and countless other games) there is never any clear indicator that the game has saved your progress. In Wolfenstein a good guess is when you’re transported to a mission because you’ll actually see a loading screen. But in Batman the loads are usually seamless. Going from room to room in a building on Arkham Island doesn’t bring the...
5 tags
The Gaming Intelligence Agency →
It’s back? I think? I can’t tell what’s going on. All of the articles put together weave some kind of magical alternate timeline where Sega re-enters the hardware market, Nintendo has left it after success with a Mother MMO, and Mega Man Legends is the most popular console series in the world (and is published in America by a Capcom USA headed by Billy Berghammer).
I have no...
Time Donkey :: Blurst →
You play as a donkey who can travel through time. And kick things. And you have to collect as many tacos and burritos as possible. I got somewhere in the 400k range on my first try. It’s a lot of fun, although the keyboard controls are a little strange.
August 2009
1 post
Team Fortress 2 - Classless Update →
Throughout history, men have worn hats as a way of showing how much better they are than other men. “I buy hats,” a behatted man seems to say. “I am better than you.”
Here comes a new week of Team Fortress 2 updates. Even if you don’t play the game, it’s worth paying attention to their website just for the marketing for the upcoming free DLC.
July 2009
4 posts
3 tags
Splosion Man
Splode?
Splosion Man is kind of a weird name. I found it distasteful at first; I didn’t like the sound of the name when I heard it on a podcast I listen to and that was enough for me to lose interest in it without actually knowing anything about it. It’s scary that I can make a judgement that fast, but that’s what happened. The initial reports out of E3 were pretty vague–...
Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts has some of the most impressive graphics I’ve seen on the 360. Beautiful textures and models and lighting.
5 tags
Henry Hatsworth and the Puzzling Adventure
Let the record show that on July 13, 2009, I gave up on Henry Hatsworth and the Puzzling Adventure. And I don’t even have a DS right now.
I bought Henry Hatsworth as soon as it came out despite the fact that I was in the middle of a big push to go back and clear out some of the backlog I had on my DS, including Final Fantasy Tactics A2 which is a game that I’m pretty sure I could...
1 tag
“(…)Players can elect to summon ‘cartoony’ versions of bats,...”
– ESRB makes unusual write-up for Scribblenauts’ content
I don’t care how much hype there is ahead of time, this game will be amazing.
This means that someone at the ESRB thought to do this. I’m pretty sure just summoning the steak would have been enough to attract the lion.
June 2009
5 posts
2 tags
Well Excuuuuuuuuuuse Me
I dreamt last night that I was being shown the new Legend of Zelda game for the Wii. The graphical style was similar to Ocarina of Time down to the number of polygons and the stretched-out textures. Link had the ability to hammer pegs with his head and I spent most of the demo in a large chamber jumping between long skinny platforms that created a kind of corkscrew pattern. The jumps were...
Edge is back up on the App Store. If you have an iPhone, get it. Best iPhone game I’ve played since Drop7. http://iTunes.com/app/edge .
2 tags
How to Raise a Dragon →
This seems like a game that might be worth looking into more. Unfortunately I don’t have more time to play through it more than once or write more about it right now, but check it out and drop me an email if you have any thoughts about it. ckolderup, gmail, etc.
4 tags
Gravitation
Gravitation is a free game (with downloads for Windows, Mac, and Linux) by the guy who made Passage. Go play both if you haven’t; Passage takes roughly five minutes and Gravitation takes about eight.
Passage is pretty straightforward in its message— I don’t think you could possibly play the game and not see what it’s trying to say. Gravitation is a bit more abstract, though. You...
2 tags
FAST GAMES - Little Wheel →
Here’s a cool Flash game you can play. It’s kind of a puzzle/adventure game with a cool monochromatic art style and a nice sense of humor. It’s not particularly difficult but there is a walkthrough if you need it. Let me know what you think and if you like this I’ll try to share other things like it here in the future!
May 2009
9 posts
Rewatching Heavy Rain footage makes me feel like they missed their chance. The graphics don’t look that great now so it’s just QTE The Game?
ZZT is dead (no, really)
Anna Anthropy, “zzt recommended reading list”:
the long-running game archive z2 just declared zzt dead, and why not - it’s served its purpose: allowing people who aren’t programmers or digital artists an avenue to game creation before game maker or construct existed. now they do.
I’m glad to see a nice send-off for ZZT by the main indie community, but I disagree with the idea that game...
I’m not going to lie, I’m a little bit disappointed that there’s no “games” or “video games” tag in the new Directory feature. I guess I just have to wait until you can make your own tag.
"Today I Die", a game by Daniel Benmergui. →
Very neat. Go check it out and play around with it for a while.
1 tag
Frustration vs Challenge
I’ve been thinking about frustration and challenge in video games. The topic came up on Listen Up a while ago and they seemed to dismiss it, simply saying that developers shouldn’t allow frustration to be a part of the experience. But is that possible? It seems to me like frustration is related to a core concept of game design: challenge. Some people I know want to be constantly...
Things I have been playing instead of writing: Henry Hatsworth, Tomb Raider Legend (surprisingly good! post later), and Drop7. Always Drop7.
3 tags
Retronauts Redux
1Up’s Retronauts podcast recently changed their format. I finally got around to listening to the first two episodes of the new format and I do think it’s an improvement over the old format, which was what seems to be the default format for gaming podcasts: round up 3-5 people and have them talk at each other for 60-90 minutes. I say “at” because you can frequently tell...
I finally made it to the third boss in Henry Hatsworth. The bad news is that everyone says this is one of the hardest points in the game.
April 2009
10 posts
3 tags
Drop7
Until just recently, the iPhone as a gaming platform disappointed me. There are some games that have a limited lifespan— games whose concepts or execution impress me, but ultimately reach a conclusion or even just a frustration point. Rolando and Eliss, while both technological marvels and definitely games I would hold high as examples of what the iPhone is capable of doing, are not games...
I’ve been trying out some new iPhone games to write about: Eliss and Drop7 are great. Expect a full post about those + Strategery.
5 tags
Ys Books 1 & 2
At my friend Joe’s suggestion, I recently played through Ys Books 1 & 2, which are on the Wii’s Virtual Console. These particular versions of the games are 20 years old and were originally on the Turbo Duo, but even THIS collection happens to be a remake of the original games, which at the time of their release were 1-2 years old. The remake was on a CD-ROM, which gave it an...
Checked out Groov on XBL Community Games. It’s pretty cool, although the lack of full analog for shooting is kind of disconcerting.
Stephen Totilo moving to Kotaku is brilliant. I can’t wait to see how they synergize rumors with bullshit statistics.
2 tags
Super Smash Bros With 5-7 Players
When my friends and I played Super Smash Bros Melee between 2001 and 2006 or so, we frequently had to figure out the best way to deal with sharing controllers since you can only have four people playing at any given time. WIth four or fewer, the solution is obvious— let everyone play, and when you have eight or more the tournament mode proved a fine solution, but having five, six, or seven...
6 tags
Mirror's Edge
Mirror’s Edge came out last fall, but other games captured my attention and armed with the knowledge that third-party Xbox 360 games get cheaper at a fairly steady pace I decided to wait it out. Both Gretchen and I were very interested in the aesthetic of it, the pristine dystopian future that uses color to highlight the path through the game’s obstacle course of a city. It was the...
5 tags
Prince of Persia
There are three things I will remember about January 2009:
I moved back to Indiana and began commuting to downtown Chicago, dedicating an average of 3 hours of my day to traveling.
I started playing games again, since all of the hubbub of moving and replacing my car and stressful work deadlines and such had all died away.
Circuit City announced that it was going out of business.
That last one...
1 tag
Why I'm Here
I was trying to think about where to start. Not so much for anyone reading, but for myself. I want to be more mindful of my hobby, since I spend such an insane amount of time on it. I’m not sure if it’s normal, but sometimes it seems that gamers spend more time thinking and talking about things that aren’t out yet than they do actually playing and talking about games that are...
1 tag
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